Movie of the Week: Frailty

Alexa: “Frailty” is a deeply disturbing movie that should leave viewers with plenty of layers to dissect about faith, family and morality, but something about it feels empty. The story is chilling and original but falls short in its execution. It’s certainly possible to create a quality low-budget thriller, but the filmmaking here is so rough around the edges that it comes across as amateurish. Those repetitive fade in-fade out transitions grew cringeworthy, second only to the shot of young Fenton’s head floating in the darkness to convey his isolation. Much of the delivery is a little too in-your-face rather than allowing the audience to intuit the film’s themes as they unfold. The scenes that took place in the past felt particularly stilted, while the interactions between Matthew McConaughey and Powers Boothe were much more nuanced and compelling. “Frailty” has many of the building blocks to create a superb thriller - including a couple of stellar twists I did not see coming - but its flaws are ultimately too notable to overcome.

Joel: Frailty is one of two features that Bill Paxton would end up directing, this being his first feature. I can see what would draw someone to want to direct a movie like this. It sets an interesting tone and presents a lot of interesting ideas. However, the end product does have a lot of telltale signs of something that would be early in a person’s directing career. The movie doesn’t exactly flow from one moment to the next very well. You can almost see the script and the storyboards of the movie as each scene takes place. In a way it’s possible to see the building blocks of the movie but the end product doesn’t feel complete. That being said, it’s not a movie you should completely write off. It’s an interesting concept and sets a tone that it’s able to latch onto throughout the movie. It’s the kind of movie that would normally get a “good first effort” sort of review, but because of Paxton’s fame in the industry already, it’s perhaps judged more harshly than a first time director’s movie would be normally. It’s worth noting that the sequences that don’t feature Paxton himself (the present day scenes with Matthew McConaughey and Powers Boothe) tend to feel a lot stronger than the ones where Paxton was featured (the flashback sequences). Perhaps as a first time director Paxton was able to give these scenes more attention as a director instead of having to split his focus between directing and acting. On the other hand, it may just be that McConaughey and Boothe are just more experienced actors than the children and were able to contribute a lot more to their scenes.

Chris: While Frailty isn't a perfect movie, it's definitely an interesting one and to me, the bigger reveal was showing that there was some sort of supernatural power rather than the two reveals McConaughey's identity. The movie had a lot of great pieces that would've probably turned out better had this been Paxton's fifth of sixth movie. I will say this, if felt like the McConaughey reveals were meant to be a bigger deal than what it was and maybe they were going for a Sixth Sense type of twist at the end but just didn't quite pack the punch that it needed. Also, as a guy who typically dislikes child actors, the two kids in this movie didn't completely ruin the movie for me and that's quite an accomplishment. But again, the supernatural powers reveal felt like a bigger deal and I'm happy for that as an explanation compared to the usual "oh, they were out of their minds" bow that's usually tied at the end of similar movies. It was nice to see that they were willing to go that far with it.

Jason: This film is not the pinnacle of technical filmmaking. It was shot with a limited budget, it is a writing and directorial debut, and yes, the editing leaves something to be desired in places. Also, the dialogue does get a bit stiff. It is difficult to write kids’ dialogue that sounds natural. I don't think they quite pulled it off in most places here.

But these things didn't stop it from giving me chills. The true terror of this movie is when you realize that you don't actually know what is true. When the twist is revealed at the end and the conclusion wraps everything up, the viewer is left with the question “Wait, what??” You think you know what's going on. You think you've analyzed the characters. You think you know where it's headed. And then the end hits you like an axe to the face and you're left to contemplate what it means in context.

You can look at the story two ways. Either Bill Paxton’s character is telling the truth or not. These two interpretations lead to two very different scary realities. On one hand, there is something seriously supernatural going on involving invisible evil and divine intervention. On the other, there is nothing supernatural at all and there is just pure, unadulterated insanity and indoctrination. Neither of these possibilities lead to good things for the characters. I can't say there are many movies that can make me split my brain like that.

And, can I just say that I really like Matthew McConaughey when he's not being himself? He’s a pretty good dark actor. He just doesn't show it often.